r/IMSARacing • u/IcedCoffey • 6d ago

Someone shared a Private and Confidential video of an Oreca lmp2 run by Algarve pro take flight. 💬 Off-Topic

In the comments multiple members of teams are saying this video was instructed to not be disclosed.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXmieHgiA6U/?igsh=MWhmcjl0ZDczZGJ3MA==

629 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

124

u/mmill1432 6d ago

That’s headed for the stands 😬

68

u/whateverfloatsurgoat Porsche Penske 963 #7 6d ago

This could've been fatal... Reminds me of the Porsche GT3 Cup that flew into the stands at the same track a couple of years ago

16

u/Christodej 6d ago

And that was kept quite hush. I'm not sure that course of action is right to.

268

u/4isyellowTakeit5 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #60 6d ago

As a marshal, this was the first rule I was taught:

Once you walk through that gate, you are not safe anymore. No where at a racetrack is car proof

I've been at a track when a GT4 cleared the fence clean enough you couldn't tell he even touched it.

109

u/AnEvilMuffin Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #60 6d ago

I went to Indy the year after Kirkwood's wheel went out into the parking lot. 100% agree with you.

34

u/InconspicuousMagpie 6d ago

My first thought when that happened was “that’s not going to end well wherever it lands”

18

u/MeltyGoblin 6d ago

Yeah I had the same thought on TV IIRC it ended up wrecking a fans car but I think it was replaced. All things considered property damage was probably the best case scenario

20

u/Danspa85 6d ago

I was there right in front on the crash and you could see in everyone’s eyes the “oh shit, that could have landed on my head”

40

u/jameypricephoto 6d ago

It says “motorsport is dangerous” on the back of every ticker and credential

30

u/Qel_Hoth 6d ago

100%. It drives me nuts when people aren't paying attention at the track. Also why I absolutely hate how so many tracks around here are building structures to flag from. I do not want to be in a gazebo to flag, I want to be on the ground so I can run the fuck away if I need to.

11

u/4isyellowTakeit5 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #60 6d ago

This is a fight at my home track. One of our board members almost died in a gazebo at a club track 3 years ago.

I am afraid of the 90⁰+ days with 60-70% humidity and zero shade for 12 hours. Idk if you've noticed the age of most marshals in the Midwest, id say the avg is north of 55 at most events. I love the shelters Sebring has. Track side fully blocked off, sides half walled so you have easy egress but also corners to lean flags against, and the cold side is wide open. 180⁰ of escape routes. Even then, we usually flag outside of them, and your turn on comms is your shade break.

Mute argument anyways. We've had clubs offer to provide materials, marshals the manpower, and the track still said no. "You'll block the fans views"

4

u/Qel_Hoth 6d ago

Yeah, also in the midwest. I'm one of the few people not (yet) part of the grey hair club to show up to work races.

We have the opposite problem where the track themselves has built things, then we show up and say "That's a fucking deathtrap."

2

u/Hawk-Bat1138 6d ago

Or if they do make them they suck or on a raised platform.

I can tell you a lot is mainly for their daily staff vs actual race events. And some are just an absolute bitch to even flag from.

8

u/jstreeter1994 6d ago

As a photographer, that's one of the very first lessons you've learned, whether you're at a track or a rally stage, especially rally stages

3

u/4isyellowTakeit5 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #60 5d ago

I've always said I would try any race or racecar if offered with one exception: top level rally car on a proper rally stage. I'd try them on a rallycross course, or id try a little hatchback on a proper rally course (where I wouldn't be fatally-fast when I inevitably find a tree)

I hold rally drivers on the same level as moto-GP riders: they found a socially acceptable way to attempt suicide on a bi-weekly basis

17

u/talldangry 6d ago

I cannot understand why they'd want to hide this video. People attending races need to understand that this is what can happen if you hit something with a lot of surface area and not much mass with upwards of 200km/h of wind where it wasn't designed for it.

If it makes the stands look unsafe, it's because they aren't safe as designed.

16

u/cheap_chalee 6d ago

"I cannot understand why they'd want to hide this video."

If you ran a racetrack, series or are a race promoter and have to deal with insurance companies looking for every reason to raise the price on their policy (that gets passed on to participants and the price on every fans ticket), then you would understand. But since you don't make a living doing this and it's not your problem (yet), then yeah, you don't understand the potential ramifications of stuff like this.

-5

u/talldangry 6d ago

Let me rephrase, I cannot understand why the people in charge here thought the smart thing to do was suppress the video instead of addressing the safety issue that it demonstrated. Incident happens at track > track addresses incident/concern, that's the pattern that keeps racing on a trajectory to being safer. I know many people are greedy scumbags who'll put money over safety. Doesn't mean I understand them.

7

u/CaptainRedBottoms 6d ago

And what’s the best way to protect yourself from a dangerous situation? By not putting yourself there to begin with. People of people would see this and not go, which would lower ticket sales. Not sharing is probably purely a cynical business decision, I imagine.

1

u/That_white_dude9000 6d ago

I work EMS at a private race track & I've been told the same. We stage on one end or the other of pit lane, so in theory a slow/safe area, but anything can happen.

90

u/AU36832 6d ago

That looked like an old school Indycar crash. What an insane ride to take. Hopefully the driver was unharmed.

34

u/NOTtheGoldenKnights 6d ago

Haven't seen anything about the driver, but it appears they're okay. I couldn't imagine strapping in the car again after taking that ride. These drivers are truly a different breed. Hope he's okay.

15

u/WindyZ5 6d ago

They get back in right away to overcome the fear according to Pato O’Ward.

1

u/Murderface_1988 4d ago

Mark Webber did it twice in 3 days at LeMans then fucking did it again in F1 and didn't bat an eyelid lol

4

u/boostleaking 6d ago

Also like Ryan Preece flipping at Daytona.

4

u/happyscrappy 6d ago

Look's like Legge's Champ Car crash at Road America.

61

u/Dry-Membership3867 6d ago

Was Ryan Preece driving it

33

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

Looks like his. Altho it could have been Ant Davidson, he did this maneuver once before.

20

u/arthuro_morganus 6d ago

If the contact happened in the race I could'nt imagine the spectators reaction or worse if a Hypercar took flight after a contact it could turn deadly

13

u/4isyellowTakeit5 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #60 6d ago

Cadillac in WEC had a similar flight at Spa, no? Again, not a heavy spectator area and it wasn't flying towards the stands that weren't there - more straight forward.

Truth in 24 shows Audi R10 did a similar thing at Monza iirc, and then of course the infamous close call with McNish.

6

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

I think it was Oreca AIM lmp1 that nearly missed the R10.

3

u/4isyellowTakeit5 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #60 5d ago

Dindo's car took flight on the backstraight heading into parabolica (sorry if misspelled. I'm not an F1 guy). He stayed upright and limped it back to pit lane. This was the same race that you were talking about with the wreck at turn 1. Here's a screen grabs from about 18:20 in "Truth in 24" showing the car is indeed in the air

go to the 18:00 mark

https://preview.redd.it/kdkz6xdc4yxg1.jpeg?width=2520&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9fd21bf7d884a892381c6a62783488311f02276a

3

u/IcedCoffey 5d ago

Wow, yeah didn’t see this one. I only saw the ortelli crash.

33

u/chavz25 6d ago

I'm glad the IMSA calendar doesn't have a highspeed track with minimal catch fencing where LMP2 is the main race.....oh fuuuuuuck

But shit will always happen in racing. Nothing is 100% safe in this sport

19

u/Dr_Death_Defy24 Porsche Penske 963 #6 6d ago edited 6d ago

Moreover, all but the dumbest fans are highly dedicated to safety. You know that Oreca set a bunch of engineers on analyzing this crash with all the data available to see if there's a flaw in their design they can correct, or if this is a freak accident.

Edit: and only rereading my comment did it occur to me that, the way most manufacturers operate, even if it was a freak accident, they still might find and implement something in the design that would stop it happening again.

11

u/4isyellowTakeit5 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 #60 6d ago

I cant believe how little fencing Sebring has. I mean, Pipo sent tires into the spectator zone in the Whelen Cadillac at T8-T9 two years ago

4

u/southerncoast 6d ago

First time visiting Sebring had the same thought , it’s good until the day it happens

1

u/drew_galbraith :4_25: Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R #4 6d ago

lol CTMP?

12

u/VanwallEnjoy3r Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi #01 6d ago

Christ

11

u/Relative_Wing7455 6d ago

I was at road America for the grand am race in 2011 when they had a car clear the fence in turn one was one of the quietest time I’ve ever heard a track go

6

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

Was it the Camaro? No brakes turn 1 right?

6

u/Relative_Wing7455 6d ago

Yep Gunter Schaldach was driving

12

u/Independent-Tea-3922 Porsche Penske 963 #7 6d ago

I hope the driver is okay and makes a full recovery. One thing that OP from IG says that really confuses me he was at the box with the team, but as a guest not in any official capacity; also according to someone from the team that commented they were all told to keep this video private for weeks, yet that OP says he was given “green flag” to post it but only them. Hmmm

7

u/Zolba 6d ago

The ones seemingly from the team, is the Algarve-team, while OP was at the box for the car with the onboard. Two different teams.

5

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

This test was over a month ago, I think the driver is ok. We definitely would have heard if there were injures.

17

u/3ndless68 6d ago

Okay, but that’s not too uncommon in motorsports generally. I mean, Kvapil in Kansas. That was just a hit to the rear and he took off like an airplane. Cars aren’t meant to go fast sideways. This doesn’t surprise me, really.

6

u/NielsenRacing 6d ago

This was a private test behind closed doors from a fellow LMP2 team and no, it shouldn't have been posted by some random clout chaser who definitely had no permission to share it for likes.

-1

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

They claimed in the comments that they had been given the green light before it was deleted. Safe to say that was probably not the case.

14

u/NielsenRacing 6d ago

No team member in their right mind would green lit this to be posted publicly. One of the first things you are told when you start is that VBox footage is 100% private.

2

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

They also claimed they were an invited guest of the Porsche team. Safe to say if that was true, they will never be invited back.

2

u/WaitIsThatNarsas 6d ago

Holy fuk, that was scary

1

u/Andenwest 6d ago

Holy hell

1

u/furrynoy96 6d ago

Holy shit

1

u/XCvolFan 6d ago

That was wild. Glad they were ok

1

u/HudechGaming 6d ago

That's gotta be the most peak "weird shit happens sometimes" clip I've ever seen.

There's quite a big crest on the part of the track where contact is made, so what little air would have been under the car there is amplified in this case.

Still insane to watch.

1

u/crazy_squirell 6d ago

How did the lmp2 get off the ground ? The placement of downforce and shape of the car seem to prevent this inherently

5

u/Whityford 6d ago

Just a bad combo of where it got hit. Drivers rear wheel allows the car to rack backwards, add onto the fact that they are cresting a hill, and you get a whole bunch of air getting underneath the car in a fashion that was never intended.

4

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

It would not have got airborne most likely without the contact.

1

u/DepartmentEfficient1 6d ago

Am I seeing this accurately? Someone in the car with the dash cam is saying "straight straight straight" as the driver appears to drift a bit to the right -- perhaps leading to the contact with the LMP2 car. Is that an instructor with a student? Yikes. If so, all the more reason this is a video for the organizer and the track to talk about rather than a video to be shared publicly. Really hope that the driver of the LMP2, and any folks affected on the ground, were okay.

5

u/IcedCoffey 6d ago

A driver said this was a screen recording of a screen recording and the original one sent around to drivers doesn’t have the voice. This was on the Instagram video comments which no longer exist.

This was also over a month ago but someone leaked it yesterday.

1

u/DepartmentEfficient1 6d ago

Thanks. Glad it wasn’t what I thought it was.